With 10 days to the European Union Referendum, in an unprecedented intervention, 14 of Britain's leading Black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) Labour MPs, including Keith Vaz, Tulip Siddiq and Chuka Umunna, have joined together urging the BAME voters to vote to remain in the EU on 23rd June. In fact, the Labour Party is leaving no stone unturned to rally its supporters behind Remain with former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown taking centre stage for the In campaign. Some are calling it “Labour fightback.”
This has come among warnings that the British diaspora would pay a high price if they vote to leave the EU. While the UN estimation of British expats in EU are 1.3mn, there is no central office recording where expats are, sending out ballots there, collecting and distributing to the right local authorities in time. Moreover, as the Economist pointed out Britain disregards its diaspora, while limiting expats' voting rights and welfare payments. While India, China, Mexico nurture their emigrants as a soft power warrior, Britain's emigrants are often overlooked and poorly represented.
In a piece on the Guardian website, the BAME MPs have warned that the economic consequences of leaving "would hit minority communities hardest."
They add that a victory for the Tory right wing and Nigel Farage's UKIP would embolden those who want to scrap anti-discrimination laws and workers' rights, setting back progress for ethnic minority communities by "generations."
The article concludes that staying in the EU will secure a "brighter future" with more jobs, higher wages and lower prices.
In fact it said, “of the many myths peddled by those campaigning for Britain to leave Europe, the claim that Brexit would benefit non-European immigrant communities is amongst the most outrageous.
“The fact is, our communities’ legitimate concerns about the current immigration system lie at the door of the Tory Government, not the EU, and the consequences of leaving would hit minority communities hardest...
“Britain’s ethnic minority communities are stronger, safer and better off in Europe.”
The article has been signed off by Rushanara Ali: Bethnal Green and Bow, Shabana Mahmood: Birmingham Ladywood, Yasmin Qureshi: Bolton South East, Thangam, Debbonaire: Bristol West, Virendra Sharma: Ealing, Southall, Kate Osamor: Edmonton, Seem Malhotra: Feltham and Heston, Tulip Siddiq: Hampstead and Kilburn, Keith Vaz: Leicester East, Chi Onwurah: Newcastle upon Tyen Central, Chuka Umunna: Streatham, David Lammy: Tottenham, Valerie Vaz: Walsall South and Khalid Mahmood: Birmingham Perry Bar.
BAME Conference
Labour In for Britain held a BAME (British Black Asian and Minority Ethnic) press conference at the Labour Party Head Office on June 8, appealing the members of the non-white communities in the UK to turn out in large numbers on June 23 and vote for Britain to stay in the European Union.
Kate Osamor MP, Alan Johnson MP, Seema Malhotra MP, Chuka Umunna MP and Rushanara Ali MP made a strong pitch for the Remain campaign, urging voters to make sure their voice is heard in the EU referendum on June 23.
They said staying in the EU is economically best for British workers and businesses as also from the security point of view. It is vital Britain remains in the EU for jobs and prosperity from a long-term point of view, they added.
Rushanara Ali accentuated on dangers of intolerance and far-right activity. She said Brexit campaigners are focussing on intolerance and anti-immigration sentiments, on fear, division – they need to be countered. “Today we require cooperation and unity between member states to tackle the modern-day challenges, including security and terrorism. We need to stay in EU for peace and for protecting our rights, and Britain’s ethnic minorities know this better than any other group. Women know this because they have gained rights, maternity rights, paid maternity rights.”
“There are legitimate fears about immigration. But let us not allow the likes of Nigel Farage to define that debate. That is dangerous. Because Nigel Farage is no friend of Britain’s ethnic minority communities.
“Let us not forget that we are the benefactors of an open society that allowed people in to make a contribution because none of us would be here if we didn’t have that, none of us would have the opportunities to be representatives in this Parliament if Britain was intolerant when our parents and forefathers came here in this country. So we cannot allow people to say that all immigration is bad.
“The idea that the likes of Micheal Gove, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage are going to allow people to come here is nonsense and frankly if the British government wanted to allow people to come in to work in the particular industries where there is labour and skills shortage, they can do that but we don’t have to leave EU to address specific problems in specific industries.”
'Labour has a monumental responsibility'
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan speaks during a Labour party 'Vote Remain' campaign event, at The Shard in London Thursday June 9, 2016. He reportedly said Labour had a "monumental responsibility" to ensure it mobilised its supporters to vote in favour of continued EU membership.
"The worry that we have is, for understandable reasons because a lot of the media attention has been on so-called 'blue on blue' attacks - Boris Johnson versus David Cameron, Michael Gove versus George Osborne - Labour voters have been turned off," he said.
He said he was trying to "remind Labour voters and supporters" why it was "so important" for the UK to remain in the EU - and was calling on them to persuade friends and family to vote Remain.
(Refer to our exclusive interview with Seema Malhotra and Chuka Umunna for more)
The Brown charisma
Gordon Brown, who almost single handedly ensured Scotland remains within UK during the Independence Referendum, has said Labour voters have the “most to gain” if Britain stays in the EU, taking a lead in the EU to create jobs, cut energy bills and tackle tax havens, during a speech at Leicester.
But Boris Johnson, among his hair dye controversy, one of the leading Vote Leave campaigners, said the Remain camp was “rattled” with just 10 days to go until the referendum on the UK’s future in the EU.
Brown said action on the environment, cutting energy bills, enhancing workers’ rights and social standards, and tackling tax havens were all best achieved by being inside the EU. He compared the Leave campaign to Donald Trump’s in America. He said in many countries globalisation was fuelling a desire to “bring control back home”.
Alongside Brown, Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn has also invoked the memory of his late father Tony on Monday as he made an impassioned plea to Labour supporters to back the Remain campaign. European Council president and historian Donald Tusk has also warned that Brexit could threaten “Western political civilisation”.
Leave camp surges ahead in polls
Support for leaving the EU is gaining ground, with phone and online surveys reporting a six-point lead, according to a pair of Guardian/ICM polls.
Leave now enjoys a 53%-47% advantage, according to research conducted over the weekend, compared with a 52%-48% split reported by ICM two weeks ago.
The polls excluded respondents who answered “don’t know”. The polls are the latest to suggest momentum has swung towards the “Out” camp, unsettling investors.
In an independent study by Asian Voice through a poll, 43.4% people said, they would want UK to stay within EU, as opposed to 33.84% who want to leave and 22.75% who are not decided.
The result of the Referendum does not depend on any polls or predictions. It depends on the people who turn up to vote and Asian Voice would like to urge its readers to make sure that they go out and vote on 23 June 2016.
In a statement the National Council of British Indians said, "We all will be paying heavy prices if UK decides to leave EU after 43 years of membership." Their Chairman Dalit Sehbai said, "If UK decides to leave the world's largest market of 500mn consumers it could unnecessarily put the economy at risk. In addition to that, there is a strong security and political reason to stay within EU, to avoid conflict and wars that Europe faced in the first half of the 20th century."
Priti Patel MP visits Hindu Mandir in Wembley
The Prime Minister’s UK India Diaspora Champion Priti Patel MP was invited by key members of the Hindu community to visit the Shri Vallabh Nidhi Mandir in Wembley and discuss the EU referendum. On the visit Priti was joined by Bob Blackman MP, Suella Fernandes MP, Nusrat Ghani MP, David Burrowes MP and Paul Scully MP.
Commenting on the visit Priti Patel MP said: “The British Asian community makes an immense contribution to both British culture and the economy. The referendum is an opportunity for them to exercise their right to vote in this historic election. For far too long those from the Commonwealth have been sidelined and discriminated against in favour EU migrants. Once we Vote Leave we will have a fair immigration policy which would bring in the brightest and the best from countries like India, Bangladesh, Australia and New Zealand.
“Once we untangle ourselves from the stagnant EU we would also be free to trade with super economies like India to boost the British economy whilst strengthening our relations with our strategic allies.’
Challenges ahead if UK exits EU
Prime Minister David Cameron has said the government might not be able to protect spending on pensions, the NHS and defence in the long term in the event of a Brexit. Cameron has warned the ‘triple lock’ guarantee on state pensions could be at risk if Britain votes to leave EU and said Brexit could cause a “black hole” in the public finances. On BBC’s Andrew Marr show, the prime minister said “our economy would be smaller” if Britain quits EU leading to “difficult choices”. On Sunday morning, during his interview on BBC, in fact Mr Cameron used the word risk at least 18 times.
Even his wife, Mrs Samantha Cameron stood shoulder to shoulder with her husband in the Brexit fight, urging voters to stay in the EU on Sunday. She warned that quitting the 28-nation bloc was “gambling with our children’s future”.
The Prime Minister said forecasts from the Institute for Fiscal Studies suggested Brexit could lead to a shortfall in the public finances of between £20bn and £40bn which would need to be “filled” – either by tax rises, extra borrowing or spending cuts.
The Out campaign said it was “a frantic attempt to rescue a failing campaign”.
Chancellor George Osborne said the armed forces could see their budgets slashed by £1-£1.5 billion a year as the wider economy shrank. He even suggested that Brexit is only an option for rich people, answering questions from the Sky News audience on Facebook Lives. Mr Osborne, who is meant to address Britain's Hindu community at BAPS Swaminarayan Temple, on Tuesday 14 June, as we go to press, is believed to urge the community to vote remain.
Brexit camp faces criticism
In a strange turn of events, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has come out in support of Brexit during an interview with ITV’s Robert Peston on Sunday. On the other hand, Brexit campaigners have been criticised for fishing in troubled waters after they made the “shameful” claim leaving the EU would stop an Orlando-style attack in Britain. The Nigel Farage-backed group, which failed to win the status of official Brexit campaign, claimed the “free movement of Kalashnikovs in Europe helps terrorists” in a post since deleted from Twitter.
Critics denounced the opportunistic remarks, especially because Florida shooter Omar Mateen is thought to have been born in the US.
In an interview on LBC Radio, Tory MP Jacob Rees Mogg said he’s inclined to believe claims Britain could allow a visa-free travel for 1.5 million Turks. The suggestion, made by a diplomat and leaked to the Sunday Times, would see Turks given free travel across the Schengen area in return for taking more people from the Middle East.
Though Britain isn’t in Schengen, the plan also involved giving 1.5million Turks with ‘special passports’, many of them civil servants, visa-free access to the UK. But PM David Cameron has insisted the issue was a “red herring” and it would be the year 3000 before Turkey joins the EU.
ECJ upholds Britain’s rights to benefits and tax credits
The CBI have released a report in which business federations in non-EU countries have said that maintaining full access to the single market is in the best interests of the UK. Responding to the European Court of Justice judgment upholding Britain's right to withhold child benefit and child tax credits from EU migrants, former Attorney-General Dominic Grieve MP said: "This underlines the fact that Britain has been successful in arguing for an end to something for nothing for EU citizens coming to Britain. They can no longer take out before they put in. It proves Britain has more influence over the rules that affect us as part of the EU.
"9 out of 10 economists agree that leaving Europe will damage the economy, put up prices, and mean less money for public services. It's a leap into the dark that will risk of childrens' future.” This will definitely serve as a turning point for the Remain camp, as we see it.
